


La Belle Dame

by penscritch



Category: Arthurian Mythology & Related Fandoms, 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Arthurian AU, F/M, Gen, M/M, Xuanhuan, creative interpretation, dame ragnell, idk - Freeform, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 11:36:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19829377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penscritch/pseuds/penscritch
Summary: Shen Yuan must marry.In which nothing goes as planned but there's still a happy ending. Somehow.Cough, female!Shen Yuan,cough.





	La Belle Dame

**Author's Note:**

> This one is possibly even more YOLO than my other multichapter fic, RIP

Where the hills sloped gently like waves and the sedge and flowers rustled like the sea, a woman fished a drowning boy from the lake. Her robes shimmered like sunlight through leaves as she patted him on the back, helping him cough up the water from his lungs.

The verdant landscape and azure waters were almost too dreamlike. The woman was more a beautiful memory than someone real.

But that wasn’t strange, because this was Faerie and she was a faerie woman.

“Are you all right?” she asked, pulling a handkerchief from her robes to wipe clean the boy’s face.

The boy didn’t respond and only stared up at his savior rapturously -- or maybe that was only the shock from the near-drowning.

“Sister Fairy!” he cried out, with such wonder and triumph at finding the right address for her that Shen Yuan was momentarily surprised.

“Yes, I’m a fairy,” Shen Yuan admitted, amused despite herself. She didn’t expect her shopping trip to end up in a rescue, and that of a small soft bun like this. “And who are you? Where are your parents?”

The little bun didn’t reply and just continued to stare at her. Shen Yuan gave up and pulled up her sleeves to perform a quick divination spell -- easy enough for even a novice enchantress like her.

Were all children so silly? 

She worried for their futures!

Preoccupied with her thoughts, she didn’t notice the blush appearing on the little bun’s face as a look of resolution formed: “Sister Fairy, I’m going to marry you when I grow up!”

Shen Yuan choked.

That adorable little boy was eventually guided by Shen Yuan back to his parents, though not without a snatched favor (a handkerchief), and the promise that she’d see him when he grew old enough to marry her. When he turned around to introduce her to his parents, she’d already disappeared.

More than twenty years passed and that bun had grown into a well-formed, handsome young man -- a knight.

Shen Yuan sat in the ditch where she’d been unceremoniously kicked, covered in mud and worse as he glared down at her with cold eyes.

“Don’t make me laugh. How can you be the Sister Fairy from my childhood? And this...” He looked down at the handkerchief in his hands, a perfect match to the one tucked close to his heart. Doubt fluttered for a brief moment, but that was all. It was impossible for there to be another Sister Fairy, not when she was already in Camelot. “My lady is the honorable Queen Shen Jiu of Camelot. You dare to compare yourself to her?”

Shen Yuan dumbly watched as he mounted his fine black destrier and rode away.

Though outwardly expressionless, curses as high as the mountains and wide as the horizon crossed her mind inside.

Fuck, what was this development!?

Did he really mistake her older sister Shen Jiu for his savior back then!?

All right, maybe there was a seventy to eighty percent resemblance in their features. But he’d promised back then that he’d recognize her no matter what!

Once again, Shen Yuan lamented the declining standards of youth -- not only were they unreliable, they also had bad memory...... 

Forget it, he was only about as high as her knees back then. It wasn’t like she was expecting much from a child, anyway. Shen Yuan hadn’t been entirely serious when she propositioned him for marriage. 

Well, the marriage part was serious. Damn that Unseelie enchantress for being such a catty bitch. What kind of curse was a marriage curse?!?

Sighing, Shen Yuan stood and brushed herself off as well as she could, grimacing at the mysteriously hairy clumps falling away and the skittering… thing that ran down her smock. Not that her appearance was any better than her clothes right now -- the curse had made her ugly too, with features that not even her mother would recognize.

She was going to have to impose on her poor brother-in-law it seemed, not that he or her sister would know her. A second curse worked into the main one restricted her from telling anyone who she really was or from dodging marriage. While consummation wasn’t a requirement, the marriage had to be recognized and officiated by the highest authority in the land -- the King.

Thank goodness for divorce, at least. Divorce had been legalized after several battered wives formed a union and petitioned King Yue Qingyuan.

After verbally abusing the lineage of the enchantress who cursed her a few more times, Shen Yuan limped her way towards Camelot, where all the roads converged.


End file.
